He arrived at the Denver Zoo under a veil of secrecy on July 1, and he won’t be available for public viewing for at least another month.
But Denver Zoo officials are already celebrating Martin, the 3-year-old, 450-pound Amur tiger, as he hangs out behind the scenes at the City Park cultural institution.
“I’m really excited we’re bringing him to The Edge, which is an exhibit where I feel like we have our best face forward,” Becca McCloskey, the zoo’s curator of primates and carnivores, . “It’ll be different from anything he’s ever seen before.”
Indeed, Martin will get a close-up view of his new home, which he will share with three other Amur tigers, as he completes a few weeks of routine quarantine. The idea is to get Martin — a former resident of the Moscow Zoo — comfortable and safe before using his bloodline to refresh the American population of Amur tigers. The big cats are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with an estimated population of fewer than 400 in the wild.
Amurs were once called Siberians due to where they were found, although these days they are almost completely confined to the Far East portion of Asia, along the Amur River, zoo officials said.
Zookeepers hope Martin will breed with Denver’s lone female tiger, 6-year-old Nikita, closely following recommendations from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan. Itap particularly vital because Amur tigers face not just habitat loss but poaching for their fur and other body parts, which are used in traditional Asian medicine.
Martin will bring the Denver Zoo’s tiger population to four, maxing out the adult capacity at The Edge. If breeding is successful with Nikita, as the staff expects, a couple of tiger cubs will join the crowd.
